Irish Continental ferry and freight services group expected to see earnings hit €74m

Ferry and freight services group Irish Continental (ICG) is expected to boost full-year earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (ebitda) by around €24m to €74m.

The Irish Ferries owner yesterday reported continued strong performance for the year, with group revenue up nearly 10% year-on-year for the first nine months at €248.6m.

Operating profit was up from €29.2m to €50.6m and ebitda up from €42.4m to €64.1m.

Irish Ferries revenue for the period jumped by 11%, year on year.

In the third quarter, ICG’s most important one, group revenue was ahead, year on year, by 10.4% and ebitda was up €10m at €38.6m.

Last year, ICG recorded earnings of €50.5m.

On the back of yesterday’s update, Davy Stockbrokers said it would increase its forecast for the group’s 2015 ebitda from €70m to around €74m.

Davy’s Stephen Furlong said: “Net debt at the end of September was €20.4m compared with €33.7m at the end of June. We expect [ICG] to move significantly into net cash by the end of 2016.”